Pricing Strategy & Value

There are three ways of increasing profits: sell more, cut our costs, or raise existing prices.

Raising prices, in principle, is very easy indeed - change the price ticket and price list and tell the sales force to raise prices by 5%. Of course, once we increase prices, customers may start to look elsewhere for a better deal.

It is, however, useful to broaden the discussion on price and think about value – the trade-off between the benefits a customer receives from a product or service and the price they are willing to pay for it.

B2B International's pricing research solutions are grounded in the principles of value marketing. Our thoughts on this important topic are contained below:

 

---

 

Brand Equity Research: Net Value Score - The Metric For Judging A Company's Success

Introduction – Transcending The Net Promoter Score A golf handicap, an IQ score, someone’s age – we are always looking for simple metrics that tell a story, provide an explanation, or offer...

White Paper: Pricing Research - What Do Our Customers Value?

Establishing the value that people put on the goods and services they sell is one of the most difficult tasks for the business-to-business marketer. If they pitch their price too high relative to the perceived...

White Paper: Identifying The Driving Forces Of Your Business

When clients come to us for research amongst their customers and potential customers, we find it helpful to know what makes them special.  We ask them to tell us about their company’s unique...

White Paper: The Problem With Price

In the ever-changing business world of today, with increased globalization and low-cost manufacturing from Asia, competitive advantage is key. Competitive jostling is a never ending battle as continuous...

White Paper: Differentiation - Are Product, Brand and Service Still Enough?

Marketers are constantly searching for differentiation. Unless a company has a genuine scientific or technological advantage, preferably one that can be protected by a patent,...

Article: Recommended Marketing Strategies In Developed And Developing Markets

Interest in developing markets such as China, India, Brazil and Russia has increased rapidly over the past ten years, meaning that market research and intelligence agencies are exploring a wider variety of geographies than ever before. This presents numerous challenges throughout the market research process, for fieldworkers, managers and analysts alike. This article discusses perhaps the most important issue of all – the different insights that tend to arise in different geographies. In particular, how do the critical marketing success factors in the d...

Article: Research As An Aid To Optimum Pricing

Don't read this article if you're the slave of cost-plus or follow-my-leader pricing. If you sincerely wish to optimise profit you will find out about the value the market puts on your product/service - and charge accordingly. We describe some of the ways research can help you establish what that value is. Classic economic theory maintains that there is a causal relationship between price and demand: the higher the price the lower the demand and vice versa. This relationship is, however, only the crudest starting point to an understanding of industrial...

Article: How To Avoid Competing On Price

Companies that sell raw materials or simple components face a marketing problem - how to give their products recognisable benefits which differentiate them from competitors. A popular tactic is to cut prices in the belief that this is the principal motivation influencing buyers; there being little to choose between other features such as quality, delivery and service. The unfortunate result may be a price war, as competitors retaliate in an attempt to maintain market share. It is our contention that to sell non-differentiated products chiefly on a price...

Article: It's The Quality That Counts

How important is price against the other elements of the marketing mix? This article is based on experience from market research and draws a moral. The Importance Of Price And Quality In The Marketing Mix Five hygiene factors dominate the minds of buyers when they are screening potential suppliers. These are service (sales and technical), price, quality, reliable delivery and speedy delivery. Each factor covers a broad range and can be broken down into many component parts. Quality, for example, encompasses reliability, durability,...